How would you react if you knew you would be sleeping in a house with a dirt floor and no indoor plumbing? How would you cope with infections and diseases, knowing that there wasn’t any medicine to improve the condition? How would you feel if you weren’t able to earn money and buy clothing? These are real situations that the Dominican Republic people live with every day of their lives.
After vaccinations and medications to avoid typhoid and malaria, Melissa, 15, and Luke, 19, traveled with about 20 other church members to the southwestern region of the Dominican Republic to an area with a number of “bateyes.” A batey is a company-owned town or sugar cane community. Some bateyes do not have running water, electricity, sewage system, or trash collection. The employees work for extremely low wages. Over 40 percent of the people live below the poverty level.
Faith is an integral element in the lives of these people, as they sustain hope despite their living conditions. The Dominican Republic is 95-percent Roman Catholic and five-percent other religions.
Melissa stayed in a house that did have indoor plumbing, but the water was not clean enough to drink. Volunteers obtained purified drinking water from a special cooler where they could refill their plastic bottles. Males and females had separate housing, where they slept dormitory-style in three-tiered bunk beds. Melissa was on the top bunk and rarely used a blanket due to the evening heat.
She remembers her first day there, working light construction, moving a “gigantic pile of gravel from the street” to another area, using shovels and wheelbarrows. She said it was very hot working out in the sun all day. Then over the next few days she helped in the medical clinic. Melissa saw people that had ongoing medical problems, parasites and infections they live with, often without any medical intervention. “People here (U.S.) make a big deal about getting a shot, but Dominicans, they would want that shot and not care about how bad it might hurt,” she said.
Luke transported gravel to a nearby property where a new two-story church was to be constructed. The church will include a sanctuary and a much-needed “feeding center,” that will accommodate 100 children. He also sorted and packaged medicine for the medical clinic.
On his second day, Luke worked in the pharmacy, filling prescriptions with some help from a Spanish translator who would relay the important instructions for taking the medicine safely. The third day, at Batey Cuchillo, Luke assisted in the medical clinic triage, speaking Spanish and asking patients their names, ages and symptoms. He remembered that two years ago when he was volunteering, tempers were high, as people waited to be seen, only to be told that some of the medicines had run out or what they needed was not available. They had to leave the clinic early for their own safety that day.
Their days usually started at 6:30 a.m. when breakfast was served. Meals usually consisted of eggs, chicken and plantains. One night they enjoyed a “typical” Dominican dinner of fried eggs, fried cheese, salami stew, and plantains. Most of the time, the local people eat rice and beans. Melissa said that by dusk, when they returned to their dorms, they usually did not have any difficulty falling asleep—they were tired.
Both participated in Vacation Bible School activities, and Melissa said the children were eager to have the contact of a hug or holding hands, or they wanted to be carried. One 11-year-old girl asked Melissa how old she was. When Melissa told her, the young girl asked her if she had any kids.
Many young Dominican girls become pregnant because birth control is usually avoided in the heavily Catholic areas. So children are having children, compounding the problems of poverty and over-crowded living conditions.
Encouraging and supporting the people through God’s ministry is always a large part of the mission trips. The living conditions are bleak, and according to Luke, there is little opportunity to escape those conditions, so providing ministry is a comfort to many of the locals.
“I would like people to know that while we are separated from the people there by geography, race, affluence, language and culture, we share with them a need to be in communion with God and to enjoy the presence of others,” said Luke.
Melissa learned to be more grateful for all she has, and it struck her upon arriving home, just how blessed she is.
“The Dominican Republic is known to be a beautiful place to vacation, but three hours south, you’ll hit one of the poorest places in the western hemisphere,” remarked Melissa. She said the average house is about the size of our family rooms. She would like to return to offer her help again.
Since Luke has been to this location for three years, he may challenge himself by visiting another Latin American country for a longer time, maybe six weeks.
But he hopes to return to the Dominican Republic at some point in his life.
